Top 10 Reasons For Law Firm Associates Wanting to Move In-house (vs The Reality)

Top 10 reasons for law firm associates wanting to go in-house (a tongue-in-cheek look):

1. Greater work life balance
2. Get closer to the business
3. Aversion to business development
4. Stable hours
5. No more time sheets (f*#@ yeh!)
6. No billing targets! (f*#@ yeh!)
7. More varied areas of work
8. More career paths within a corporate organisation
9. More sophisticated work
10. Easier job!

Vs the reality:

1. You’re now a cost centre, justify your existence! 
2. Get closer to business = negotiating US$1k contracts, sorting out speeding fines. #FML 
3. Sales managers hate you! Try convincing them to do (or not do) something and keeping them in your favour. That’s biz dev!
4. Stable hours, yes, if you know that you have to hold weekly conference calls to the US at 12am every Wednesday, calls to Rio at 6am on Thursdays, and London at 10pm on Friday.
5. Time Sheets. See (1) above.
6. Billing Targets. See (1) above.
7. Varied includes the work you hate. GDPR/data privacy anyone?
8. You’ll be competing against more qualified people with business experience since graduation. 
9. Juicy, expensive work goes to external counsel. Because you’re having to negotiate US$1,000 contracts (see 2 above)
10. Easy? You’re making key decisions affecting the business, so the buck stops with you. Not external counsel. 

And no.11 — timesheets DO exist in some organisations!  This can be used as part of an in-house lawyer's appraisal/pay review. 

Agree? 

#mythbuster #mythvsreality #realitybites

See original post on LinkedIn, with some great comments!